Comments on: Language death: evolution, natural selection or cultural genocide?

By: PETER W. VAKUNTA

PETER W. VAKUNTA — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:12:57 +0000

Migration orchestrated by economic hardship will continue to be our lot as long as political leaders refrain from taking bold steps to put an end to endemic poverty. Is it any surprise that UN High Commissioner for Refugees has its plate full of problems relating to the rehabilitation of economic refugees? We can’t have our cake and it, you know!

By: david

david — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:09:35 +0000

Agree with Adam, not language is a problem, but the information ingrained in it, which will die with the language.
Language per se is the understanding of the world, certain point of view developed in certain places, and just because it is small doesn’t mean it has no value. In this regard dying languages is problem

By: No dimo saluadan, amangan malipatam ti ag-Ilocano « ILOCANO ONLINE

No dimo saluadan, amangan malipatam ti ag-Ilocano « ILOCANO ONLINE — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:28:41 +0000

[...] Someone wrote: “Ethnic genocide is the destruction of a culture. You can compare it to a living being who i… [...]

By: Linda Amenya

Linda Amenya — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:27:23 +0000

Our language is our culture. In my country (Kenya) we are currently having the language debate because of
1. Tribalism caused by ethnocentricity.
2. Globalisation
3. Intermarriage
I think having several languages is good for maintaining culture but consider that the main purpose of language was to communicate in the first place so as long as people can still communicate it doesn’t really matter in what language it iis done i.e just because my mother teaches me my tribe’s traditions in English doesn’t mean I won’t get them just as well.

By: .hj barraza

.hj barraza — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:42:09 +0000

I was actually thinking on this problem yesterday, discussing how to enable poor people stay within their local economies and not migrate. Instead, teach them how to develop their local micro-economies

One of the main reasons for culture suicide is the death of elders with no one left to pass on their knowledge, young flee or don´t care.

Somehow economies must include the preservation of cultural capital, without turning it into tourism whore.

Much has yet to be developed in micro-financing and local economy development for rural, indigenous and under developed areas.

By: Jennifer Brea

Jennifer Brea — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 02:17:00 +0000

I was just returning to this post to watch the Wade Davis talk (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/69), which I just watched a few minutes ago only to see that another reader, hj barraza, had already posted it!

Anyway, it’s a great talk that certainly echoes Adam’s view that it’s the underlying loss of culture, rather than just language itself, that represents the true cost of the world’s shrinking linguistic diversity.

By: PETER W. VAKUNTA

PETER W. VAKUNTA — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:59:10 +0000

What makes the difference in terms of survival or extinction of minority/majority languages is the implementation or non-implementation of official language policies in the countries in question. Take the case of Cameroon as an example. More than four decades after attaining national independence, we are still speaking in borrow tongues: English and French at the expense of native languages!The importance of indigenous languages has been stressed by scholars in the field. It is noteworthy to point out the views of Nkrumah on the restoration of autochthonous languages as an indispensable part of our heritage. In his speech “Ghana is Born,” Nkrumah saw the use of European languages in Africa as one of the problems compromising the freedom, equality and independence of African countries. He thus suggested the following blueprint:
“It is essential that we do consider seriously the problem of the language in Africa[…] Far more students in our universities are studying Latin and Greek than studying the languages of Africa. An essential of independence is that emphasis must be laid on studying the living languages of Africa for, out of such a study will come simpler methods by which those in one part of Africa may learn the languages in all other parts”(Quoted in Kwame Botwe-Asamoah,747) In his discourse, Nkrumah not only saw the danger in neglecting one’s mother tongue, but he also underscored the significance of the linguistic factor in African unity, the more so because as Ngugi (1986:13)has pointed out,”Every language has a dual makeup; it is both a mode of communication and a bearer of culture.” Asante(1988:4) is probably right when he claims that “If your God cannot speak your language, then he is not your God.”

By: Craig C

Craig C — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:29:59 +0000

This is only the beginning, and lets not be confused about what “Mordern day Colonialism” is. Some individuals like Benjamin Cook from above think this topic to be trivial. As seen when he stated “People who hold on to old and fleeting languages as anything but an important piece of cultural heritage are silly to me”. As far as im concerned, inhibiting a group to engage in their native language islike writing a death sentence. . It cuts of the wisdom and knowledge that would outerwise be passed down from elders to the young. A concept that most westeners are unaware of. Vital customs and tradition which are the pulse and driving force of the group, are practiced less, and then eventually cease to exist. It may start out as somthing that seems simplistic like language and then develop into forced spirituality. A system that causes them no longer to reley on each other as a tribe, now forces them to reley on outsiders for their survival. IT IS ABOUT THE RIGHT OF WHO THEY ARE. WHAT ABOUT THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE? As we can see they have none, and
history tells us this time and time again.
“Where today is the Pequot? Where are the Narragansetts, the Mohawks, the Pokanoket, and the once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the white man, as snow before the summer sun”. Famous Native American quote- Techumseh(Shooting Star),Shawnee Chief

By: mary

mary — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 18:33:47 +0000

i think more funding should be put in to help those living in poverty. Health care should be free. the government should provide free health care to its citizens as right of belonging to the country. there should be more job opportunuity open to people as this will help eliminate poverty and early death. i am speaking on behalf my fellow brothers and sisters of cameroon

By: Sotiris Koukios

Sotiris Koukios — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:51:38 +0000

What do you think new EU would do with languages. See the problems on my blog by clicking my name. A Referendum is needed for New EU

By: .hj barraza

.hj barraza — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 06:39:11 +0000

Im sure you will all enjoy this talk by Wade Davis “The Endangered Cultures”:

Anthropologist Wade Davis is perhaps the most articulate and influential western advocate for the world’s indigenous cultures. His stunning photographs and evocative stories capture the viewer’s imagination.

As a speaker, he parlays that sense of wonder into passionate concern over the rate at which cultures and languages are disappearing — 50 percent of the world’s 6,000 languages, he says, are no longer taught to children.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:24:15 +0000

Even as a linguist, I would argue that language death per se is not as worrying as the erosion of culture and traditional knowledge which that death represents.

I know people will hate me for saying this, but I would also question whether there is necessarily a conflict between the majority language and minority languages.

Take the Philippines for example. English is the dominant language of business and science. Tagalog is the language of public education and mass media. Yet over 100 native languages thrive locally among friends and family.

By: Samuel Goh Kim Eng

Samuel Goh Kim Eng — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 11:15:51 +0000

Every language belongs to those who actually use it
When it’s not used there’s no choice but to ditch it
Any language today has to be functional or must have economic value attached to it
After all language is a mere tool of communication and that’s basically all to it

By: Jennifer Brea

Jennifer Brea — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:05:49 +0000

@Nu: This post is not specifically about Africa nor is it meant to describe what is happening in all cases. I agree with you. I don't think that African languages are going to be replaced by colonial ones any time in the near future for the simple fact that even if in some African countries English or French is the official language of instruction, so few children attend school. But Africa is a big continent and it really depends on which countries we choose to illustrate our point, right? I do think the officialization of language has had a big impact elsewhere--in certain countries in Latin America, for example, and in France, Ireland, and China. Educating people in a single language plays a critical role in successful nation-building, brutal as that process can be. And if in Africa, more and more children attend school through secondary, and are taught in English or French, then yes, my personal opinion is that what has happened elsewhere in the world can happen in Africa. It only takes two generations for a huge shift to occur. How many languages did my grandparents speak that I cannot? Will it happen? I have no idea. At any rate, the observations about indigenous languages losing ground to colonial ones or the impact of recognizing certain languages as official were not really mine. They were made by several of the Rue 89 commenters and the Cameroonian blogger (or his reader). It's but one of the many trends (globalization of media, technology, trade, etc. are some others) that have contributed to the disappearance of so many languages. In the case of the former, I think they were probably referring to English, Portuguese or Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas or French overseas departments, where many indigenous languages are spoken by small, marginalized populations and integrating into society requires speaking the colonial language. So is it a "fact" that dying languages are being replaced by colonial ones? I don't really know and it's not really my point to argue. But some netizens think they are. @Ben: I agree with you about the use of the term cultural genocide. It is in reference to a reader who used the term "Ethnocide" The wikipedia page makes note of the common criticism of the word, the same point you made, that it waters down the term genocide. I think it's interesting that the terms ethnocide and cultural genocide were both used in the UN Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Thank you all for your comments!

By: graceydou

graceydou — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 14:41:38 +0000

In my opinion, Language death is one part of Globalization. We can not escape from it, so the only thing we can do is trying our best to protect the linguistic diversity.