The Fate of the World's Endangered Languages
Today, a growing number of languages are only spoken by the elders in certain communities and when they pass the languages die with them because they were never passed on to the younger generations.
In the past, countries such as America, Canada and Australia have forced the use of English on to people by taking native children away from their families and putting them in boarding schools. Also, in the British Isles, children were once punished for speaking their native languages. However, parents are also one of the reasons why native languages are lost. Parents stop using their native languages because they believe that it is better for their children to grow up using the dominant language.
Marie Smith died last year at the age of 89 and she was the last person to speak the native language of the Eyak people. Keeping languages such as Marie’s alive is difficult when there are limited funds available to spend on educating younger members of the community in the native language. Nicholas Ostler is one of the supporters in the preservation of languages and the head of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, which is a non-profit group focused on preserving endangered languages. Ostler says that bilingual children tend to do better in school than monolingual ones. On the other hand, many argue that no matter what language is spoken at home, priority should be placed on a person’s ability to speak English.
Electronics play a big part in the preservation of languages and with new technology systems, accessibility to learning new languages has greatly increased (especially with the advancement of the internet). In some communities the elders have groups in which they teach the children certain native tongues, but even with such advancements and efforts no language can survive if they are not spoken.
Endangered Species. When nobody understands. Oct, 2008. http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12483451
I believe in the need to protect endangered languages.
ReplyDeleteHowever, although there are at least 7,000 languages throughout the World, an increasing number are endangered through the linguistic imperialism of both Mandarin Chinese and English.
Interestingly the following declaration was made in favour of Esperanto, by UNESCO at its Paris HQ in December 2008. http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=38420&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html
The commitment to the campaign to save endangered languages was made, by the World Esperanto Association at the United Nations' Geneva HQ in September.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eR7vD9kChBA&feature=related or http://www.lernu.net
I also believe that these languages need to be preserved. While these languages may no longer have the practical use as they did in the past or the economic benefit that the English or Spanish language does they still need to be protected. Language is an incredibly important part of culture. The culture of these native tribes and indigenous people need to be cherish and one powerful way that this can be done is by spending money to preserve the language.
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