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Disappearing Languages
LadyCake
Posts: 3,126 Forum Member
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I'm sure most posters will fins this dull but.....
I was reading this article this morning about a Mexican language that is about to die out as only two people speak it now (they don't talk to each other).
Some of the readers' comments surprised me.I think it's important keeping a historical record of languages that have existed as it can teach us about other people , countries and life.
If I come across Old English it brings the past to life in a way , even if i'm too slow to understand most of the words:o
Do you think it's important to preserve languages , or do you think it is pointless and if a language dies out , nothing has really been lost?
I was reading this article this morning about a Mexican language that is about to die out as only two people speak it now (they don't talk to each other).
Some of the readers' comments surprised me.I think it's important keeping a historical record of languages that have existed as it can teach us about other people , countries and life.
If I come across Old English it brings the past to life in a way , even if i'm too slow to understand most of the words:o
Do you think it's important to preserve languages , or do you think it is pointless and if a language dies out , nothing has really been lost?
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didnt manx die out here in the 80's? its still around but the last native speaker of it died in the 80's i think so its part of the natural progression of life.
I love history so I'm probably a bit biased but I think any records that will help future historians are worth keeping. Look how much we found out when the Rosetta Stone was deciphered, whole periods of ancient history suddenly revealed and understood.
Easter Island always pops into my head when dying languages come up. They found some ancient language on a wall (I think, I can't remember the exact details) but because the native population died out no-one knows what it means, and probably never will because they were an isolated tribe.
I'm not suggesting we teach these languages in schools or anything, but an historical record should be made.
the people of rapa nui are still around they still live there and in chilie or did you mean another tribe?
the reason people cant read the cave writing is only priests and the high up familys could read and when that collapsed it disappeared.
look at PNG they have over 400 languages but they are slowly being replaced with either pidgen english, english or Indonesian, god knows how many languages we have lost and replaced over the years.
I was just talking in general, sorry should have said.
It's natural that languages will come and go, it's evolution and we can't stop it, but in this day and age we can keep a record of the languages we still have. There are things we'll never know because of dead languages but we can help people of the future by keeping records now (I feel all sci-fi-y saying that
ah right, well if we can preserve it we should the internet will be like the rosetta stone of the future
"Manx has been taught in Manx schools since 1992 and Manx classes have proved popular. Since 2001 a number of Manx medium playgroups and a primary school have been set up, some lessons are taught through Manx at one secondary school, and Manx language classes for adults are popular"
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/manx.htm I found a clip of a woman singing on You Tube last year. She was the last person who was able to speak the language and I found it quite moving.
Here it is-
The last of the Bo-tribe, 85 year old Boa Sr has died. The Bo language died with her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ17ry34P-A&feature=related
A lot of tribal languages die out because said tribes become more integrated into society and loose their language, or adapt it, into the more dominant one. A lot are wiped out through unlawful acts though.
With Manx [and all the other Celtic language], they were actively repressed by the Governments. When the Isle of Man was sold to the UK it all went tits up for the language. The same goes for Gaelic - it was very widely spoken up until Scotland joined the UK. Wales was in the same position.
So yes, languages do naturally die out. However, a lot of language deaths are caused by Governments feeling the need to "better educate" people and make them all the same.
whether its man made enforcement or not its still progression and that you cant stop, its human nature. thousands of languages are made and superseded by others, english will one day
only to pedants
OK, carry on.
I do think records should be preserved though.
Reading about what happened to aborigine people in Australia turns my stomach and removing a person's cultural identities is the first step and a form of genocide in my opinion. I'd have liked to studied linguistics but my brain is too crap now. Thanks for that!
I will try to watch when next possible.
This is an interesting link and I completely agree that dying languages need to be kept alive. I tried to learn Cornish when I lived there but hardly anyone else bothered so you end up speaking to yourself!
When i went to wales i didnt find anyone who spoke welsh
Not in the south, but plenty in the North.
I always find it odd that the North Welsh who traditionally had far more contact with the English have held so firmly onto their language. I think it's a good thing, just odd.
tee hee
The following is fascinating stuff:
http://www.xibalba.demon.co.uk/jbr/futurese.html
I would *so* love to hear those words spoken.
Predicting the future of the English language is rather easy, in the short term. The odds are, over the next few decades its New World dialects are going to gain increasing global dominance, accelerating the demise of thousands of less fortunate languages but at long last allowing a single advertisement to reach everybody in the world. Then after a century or two of US dominance some other geopolitical grouping will gain the ascendancy, everyone will learn Chechen or Patagonian or whatever it is, and history will continue as usual. Ho hum. But apart from that… what might the language actually look like in a thousand years time?
That's not really the case.
South Wales had, and still has, a higher incidence of inward migration to the industrial heartlands which diluted the linguistic base.
Pembrokeshire has also alwaysy been very anglicised in terms of language due to its historic links with royalty/english aristocracy
There are also more/bigger international ports/docks in South Wales which have added to the linguistic diversity , as well as diversity in accents .
North Wales is more insular ( historically) in terms of inward migration and industry, hence the langauge ( and culture) maintaining its integrity to a greater degree than in the south