Survival of Languages (original) (raw)
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Language endangerment, a global phenomenon, is accelerating and 90 percent of the world's languages are about to disappear in 21 st century, leading to the loss of human intellectual and cultural diversity. When Europe colonized the New World and the South, an enormous body of cultural and intellectual wealth of indigenous people was lost completely and it was appreciable only through the language that disappeared with it (Hale, 1998). This research deals with the problem of language loss in the world and seeks answer to critical questions: What does language extinction mean for humankind? What is to be done to save languages from loss? Some scholars suggest that linguists should find solutions whereas others disagree that it is linguists' responsibility to maintain and preserve the currently disappearing languages. Moreover, the research indicates that not only language specialists are participating in this process but also general public, particularly members of the communities whose languages are declining, are contributing their efforts in saving languages from loss.
The world's languages in crisis: A 20-year update
The world's languages in crisis" (Krauss 1992), the great linguistic call to arms in the face of the looming language endangerment crisis, was first delivered in an Endangered Languages Symposium at the 1991 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Using the best available sources, he surveyed the global situation and estimated that only 10% of languages seem safe in the long term, up to 50% may already be moribund, and the remainder are in danger of becoming moribund by the end of this century. Twenty years later, better information is available. In this paper we use information from the latest edition of the Ethnologue (Lewis 2009), plus information being gathered for the next edition, to offer an update to the global statistics on language viability. Specifically the data for this study come from our work to estimate the level of every language on earth on the EGIDS or Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (Lewis and Simons 2010). Our finding is that at one extreme more than 70% of languages are extinct or moribund in Australia, Canada, and the United States, but at the other extreme less than 10% of languages are extinct or moribund in sub-Saharan Africa. Overall we find that 19% of the world's living languages are no longer being learned by children. We hypothesize that these radically different language endangerment outcomes are explained by Mufwene's (2002) observations concerning the effects of settlement colonization versus exploitation colonization on language ecologies. We also speculate that urbanization may have effects like settlement colonization and may thus pose the next great threat to minority languages.
Does the number of speakers of a language determine its fate?
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2007
Given the forthcoming near certain massive disappearance of languages during the twenty-first century, scholars have tried to identify the causes that are leading this process. Among those given, the number of speakers has been considered one of the most important predictors for the future of a language, and di¤erent ''safety thresholds'' have been proposed. However, examination of several sociolinguistic aspects in a fairly large sample of languages worldwide suggests that there is no direct relationship between the number of speakers and the probabilities of survival of a language. In this article, we will show that the number of speakers cannot be considered the only, not even the most important criterion, when trying to anticipate language survival or death. Instead, natural transmission and intergenerational use are shown to be better predictors. We will use data on more than 525 languages, collected by the Amarauna Languages group of the UNESCO Center in the Basque Country, with the purpose of writing a report on the current sociolinguistic situation of the world languages (Martí et al. 2005).
AN ANALYTICAL STUDY ON DEATH OF A LANGUAGES
2018
It is predictive that the biological function exercised by the voice box translates a noise into intelligible expressions. [1] Representation of experience by words was explored at length by Gorgias and Plato in ancient Greece. Rousseau went on to illustrate that language stemmed from emotions, whereas Kant considered that language emerged from careful and logical thought. The structuralism view of language was first introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure. [2] Predictive analytics methods give a rough judgement that of the available and in-use languages a large majority are likely to be dead by 2100. How does it happen? Is it due to cultural invasion, scientific adjustment or technological convenience? It is not very difficult to prevent a language from disintegrating or becoming endangered. Desire of a community to conserve its language has numerous options available. Take for example Modern Hebrew which was revived after generations modified and adaptable to the present requirements.
Language Death and Endangered Languages
Abstract: Language is essential in humans’ lives; it is what takes to differentiate between animals and humans, it is what we use to understand ourselves. Upon all its status in human life, people are still crying of language disappearance, because many died and some are endangered. There are some questions that supposed to be asked, but only few were raised. We tried to look at major areas such as: the importance of languages, the statistics of languages, what really caused the endangerment, and a way out (solution). Though, the issue is very vast, but we tried and narrowed ourselves down to the minimal level just not to confuse readers. Key words: Language, death, endangered, and revitalization