Languages go extinct when more generations within cultures become bilingual and slowly begin to lose connections and proficiency to their traditional languages. This is the most common among indigenous cultures around the world, whether thats Maori peoples, Aboriginal Peoples, Hawaiian peoples and others in the Pacific, the !Kung in South Africa, and other Native American tribes in modern-day United States. When languages die, this goes beyond losing connection with the language but also losing connection with the person's cultural identity and connection to a particular group. A dying language means that a group of people lost autonomy, sovereignty, and a spiritual connection to their culture. I would associate a dying language with a dying culture. Overall, we are losing a way of life from our diverse humanity.
I think that language preservation is so cool. In a way, it feels like we are taking back the impacts of colonization and de-colonizing our world. Language preservation is also a good way to bridge linguistics professionals and anthropologists together. They are able to collaborate with native speakers to document vocabulary, grammar, structures, and incorporating other cultural practices into preserving the language. The Hebrew language was brought back to life. I think that it's success was partly the religious AND ethnic associations that the language has with people. I wonder if there are other strong spiritual and ethnic connections with other languages that have the opportunity to have a come-up the way that Hebrew has over the years.
Modern technology is making it easier to document linguistic diversity, especially among dying indigenous languages across the globe. Native speakers are able to record audio entries to create a dictionary. The NYT article talks about how the Siletz language used among a Native American tribe in North America (Canada and through parts of Alaska) only has five native speakers left. Many have the goal to stabilize dying languages rather than using them to "conquer" the world. I like this mindset, as languages have a much higher chance at survival/complete preservation. A pool of speakers within dying languages will help keep languages like the Siletz alive.
Comments