SDLP 105: Learning Journal 7

[Constantinos Beauclair-Kolomtsas]

When languages die the voice of a culture dies with it. Languages hold unique expressions and meanings that we often cannot translate into our own language. For example, the word 'gunslinger' holds a unique origin and meaning that cannot be translated directly to Greek because of the cultural pretext. As a result the translation would be a synonym like 'risk-taker' which results in the loss of a unique expression. Another loss is the cultural heterogeneity of our world. With the expansion of Mandarin, English, Spanish, and French, languages of small communities and tribes are disappearing and the cultural homogeneity is occurring. This could be seen as a positive, but the amount of knowledge and history we are losing through the loss of languages is frustrating to linguists, historians, and scientists, as well as to the older generations of these communities who are seeing their heritage vanish.