Language loss = cultural loss

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Language loss cultural loss

• FYI- Facts Stats

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•  
• By the end of the 21st century half of the worlds
  languages will disappear
•  
• 15th century case study
• There were 15000 languages spoken at the
  beginning of the 15th century
• European expansion languages lost 4000-9000
  languages since the 15th century
• Today the 15 most commonly spoken languages are
  spoken by half the worlds population, the top 100
  by 90
• Most of these languages are European
• Just 4 of the worlds languages are European yet
  half of the worlds most commonly spoken languages
  are European

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• Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken first
  language (1.6 billion)
• English is the second most spoken first language
  but the first most spoken second language
• 80 of the worlds languages are spoken only in
  their country of origin
• A lot of countries require education to be in the
  most dominant language (Canadian Natives learning
  in English)
• Can having a single language help create a
  national identity?

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Language Loss

• Culture is tied to language, lost language lost
  culture
• Anthropologists view language loss (cultural
  loss) equal to biodiversity loss
• The answer? Promote multilinguistic environment,
  estimated that 2/3 of the worlds children are
  growing up in multilinguistic homes

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Adapted from the article last Words by Papyal
Sampat, World Watch, May/June, 2001

• Language loss is a form of cultural
  impoverishment. When a language is lost very
  often the cultural is lost too. So much of the
  worldview of a culture is tied up in the language
  the culture speaks. Cultural diversity is very
  like biodiversity. Once a culture is lost we have
  also lost that way of seeing and understanding
  the world. Perhaps solutions to problems have
  been lost too.
• There is a loss to linguistics and to the other
  sciences that draw on it- psychology and
  anthropology. Opportunities to analyze and
  understand language are gone. Just as with
  species extinction we do not even know what we
  are losing.
• As we lose languages we lose opportunities to
  understand our own past. Languages hold important
  clues to the history of our species. Once lost
  that history may be lost too.
•  
• As we lose linguistic diversity we are
  diminishing our understanding of biological
  diversity. Native inhabitants of regions with
  high biodiversity have developed elaborate
  vocabularies to describe the natural world around
  them. This reflects their intimate knowledge of
  the world they live in. Once the language is lost
  that knowledge is also lost.

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Worth us thinking about

• Should we (you) care about language loss and the
  associated loss of culture or is this just
  evolution?
• In small groups reach a consensus
• Brainstorm 3 arguments to support your position