Are we losing our humanity?
A language isn't just a series of words and communications, it's the product of a culture, of people. Languages all have inbuilt characteristics, like the way that some Australian aboriginal languages have no word for quantity, or the way that in romance languages (e.g. Spanish) there is sometimes no female gender version of a profession because those professions were historically occupied by males. What I'm saying is that languages are products of history and culture - the more we homogenise and destroy our linguistic diversity by only using mainstream languages of powerful nations and powerful businesses, the more we lose the diversity of our cultural and historical identities and by extension our sense of humanity. Erasing languages is erasing history. Erasing history leaves people without identity and a sense of identity is what makes us human.
Sent by: Joss
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Languages are important to know not only the culture, but also a lot more. I come from Portugal. In Iberian peninsula we had several peoples living there till the Romans assimilated them. Now we have no idea at all on how they lived, what was their livelihood, what tools they used, how far they went. The same with Etruscans in Italy. We know some words, some art, but nothing else. Language is a treasure that must be preserved, or at least be well documented.
I am deeply afraid that we're already losing English - judge txtspk and the endless spelling and grammar errors online (yes, even the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú). Languages enrich us culturally - as much as any artform. Gobalisation is awful, making us all 'standard'. Please, no single language.
A language's death because of the overtake of a culture by a larger one has happened all through human history. English was one of these languages it was once very much an assortment of primitive Anglo-Saxons, Romans, and later French. Linguists consider many of the pidgin Englishes of the former British colonies to now be fully developed languages. Are you suggesting that the people that speak these languages are in some way less "human" than those that speak an older language?
For myself and many others, watching my language disappear is disturbing and painfull. It's akin to watching the bulldozing of stonehenge to make way for a Macdonalds.
Only a person who speaks, listens and thinks in her/his native and endangered language has the right to say whether or not it is worth saving, supporting or recording. All others offer their views on such matters from a less informed position. How can such a person determine the value of something they know little or nothing about?
There's an old saying in my language describing exactly the above point, it goes:
eerrrmm..?
Oh.. ! it's gone - forever! What a shame... it was a gem of wisdom.
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