What
we lose when we lose a language
by
Howard Richler
The
adjective “endangered” is usually twinned with the noun “species”
as the onslaught of civilization has brought about a diminution in
the planet's biodiversity.
But not
only are many species on the verge of extinction, many languages are
teetering towards oblivion. Of the approximately 7000 languages
spoken on our planet, it is estimated that anywhere from 50% to 90%
will not survive the end of the century. So whereas the largest 80 to
100 languages in the world such as English, Chinese, Urdu and French
are spoken by 4.5 billion people, there are around 3500 languages
whose total number of speakers equals no more than ten million; an
average of less than 3000 speakers each. Generally speaking a
language is regarded as secure if it has over 100,000 speakers.
However, many of the languages spoken today are on the abyss of
extinction having fewer than 100 speakers.
Not
surprisingly, many of the native languages in Canada fall into the
endangered camp. Only Cree, Ojibway ans Inuktikut are regarded as
relatively secure. In many of the 53 Canadian aboriginal languages,
more than half of the population can't communicate at all in their
mother tongue and fluency declines drastically among the youth of the
tribe. Hilda Nicholson, a spokesperson for the Mohawk band of
Kahnawake, told me that the fluency rate in the 65 year and older
category was around 75%, but in the 6-15 age group, this rate drops
to under 20% So, there is a clear sign when a language is in
danger. Parents stop teaching it to children and children stop
wanting to learn the language of their ancestors. Unfortunately, the
obvious role of schools is limited no matter how great the effort of
the school program, the ultimate fate of the language is determined
by whether it is used on a daily basis in casual conversation.
So, why
should we care? Several things are lost when we lose languages.
First, we lose cultural knowledge. Since there are around only 200
written languages, when a non-written language vanishes we lose the
beliefs and stories that may provide insights into our humanity.
These oral histories could possibly inspire us by providing a new way
to perceive the world.
More
concretely, the loss of languages is also a loss for science because
a language represents an adaptive technology. For example, the
Inuit language possesses approximately 100 words for sea ice and this
instructs one about complexities not generally known in other
languages. When it comes to knowledge about bees we probably have
much to learn from the Kayapo language of Brazil. Its apian
vocabulary contains such domains as flight patterns, bee odour,
quantity and quality of honey, and the edibility of larva. According
to Mark Pagel, a biomathematician at Oxford, different languages have
“particular habits of mind” and learning a specific language can
possibly alter the brain. For example, Pagel interprets the inability
of Japanese adults to differentiate between “la” and “ra”
sounds as meaning that on a physiological level there may be brain
distinctions based on language.
The
difference, however, between Japanese and English pales compared to
some nuances we find in other languages. For example, it was once
assumed that certain sentence structures were not possible. So while
one can say “I will eat this kangaroo” it was believed that in no
langauge would some rational person utter “This will eat kangaroo
I.” But then linguists “discovered” the Waripiri of the
Australian Outback. Not only do tribesmen state in Waripiri, “This
will eat kangaroo I.” They also say “Kangaroo will this eat I”
and “Eat will kangaroo this I.” By observing which rules hold
and which do not (e.g., “will” always comes in the second
position in the sentence), linguists have been better able to set
parameters for universal grammar. But in order to test and refine
universal grammar, linguists require a myriad of examples from the
grammars of diverse languages. Unfortunately, until recently the data
base has been shrinking drastically.
“Until
recently” is used in the last sentence because hope is on the
horizon. This past June Google introduced the “Endangered Language
Project,” (ELP) a website that allows people and organizations
involved in language preservation to find and share the most current
and comprehensive information about endangered languages. With ELP,
Google provides its technology and vast storage capacity to create a
headquarters where data can be shared in a variety of forms, such as
text, audio and video files. Although Google launched this endeavour
it will shortly pass the gauntlet over to these two organizations
involved in the field of language preservation: The First Peoples'
Cultural Council based in Brentwood Bay. B.C. and the Institute
for Language Information and Technology at East Michigan University.
Howard's
next book From Happy to Homosexual and other
mysterious semantic shifts will be published
next Spring.
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