Why worry if languages die?

Why worry if languages die?

Professor David Crystal, author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Languages responds:

How do languages die?

How do languages die?

A language dies only when the last person who speaks it dies. But you know, some people say it dies when the second-last person who speaks it dies. Because then the last person has no one left to talk to. Well, of course, languages have come and gone throughout history as communities have come and gone. But what's happening now is something quite extraordinary.

How many languages are dying?

How many are dying?

There are about 6000 languages in the world, more or less. Nobody knows the exact number. And of these, people think that about half of them are so seriously endangered that they are likely to die out in the course of the present century. Now the present century is a hundred years, half is 3000 languages, so that means one language is dying out somewhere in the world, on average, every two weeks.

Why are they dying?

How does this happen?

There are all kinds of reasons why languages die. One is the physical reasons when people are affected by famine and disease and earthquake. Another is genocide, when some countries deliberately try to stamp out a small language. The main reason is globalisation. That is, there are some huge languages in the world, like English and Spanish, and Arabic and French, and these are like steamrollers crushing the smaller languages that they find in their path.

Can anything be done?

What can be done?

A great deal can be done to preserve an endangered language. The first thing is that the people themselves must want the language to be preserved. That's very important. The second thing is the powers-that-be must want the language to be preserved. They must have a respect for the minority languages that are in their care. And the third thing that has to be there, of course, is cash. It costs quite a lot of money to preserve an endangered language. Think about it - you have to train the teachers, you have to write books for the children, and all that sort of thing. It doesn't cost an extraordinary amount of money, but it does cost a bit. So without money, endangered languages don't have a positive future.

Why should we care?

Why should we care?

We should care for exactly the same reason as we care about the biodiversity of the planet — the preservation of the various species of plants and animals. Languages are exactly like that, except they are the intellectual diversity of the planet. There are something like 6000 visions of the world expressed by the 6000 languages that exist. Half of those visions are about to disappear. And I mean disappear. Because think of it like this: when a language dies which has never been written down, it is as if it has never been.

Comments (5)

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Derek Hollingsworth
18 January 2022, 18:30
Linguistic diversity is a good thing and poses no threat to anyone. Think of a language as the library of a culture. I think perceived inequality of language power and status is what causes division. If a minority culture is not given the space it deserves to exist, its community rightly reacts to this. If you drill down into it, language shift frequently has a political element where one culture/language is imposed on another (often without the consent of the minority/oppressed at some point in the process).
There is a language revitalisation effort for the Irish language in Ireland where I live. It is wonderful to be involved in this. The linguistic situation in Wales, with its own challenges and a somewhat different history, is still something to be aspired to from an Irish perspective.
Nia Martin-Evans Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Staff
10 February 2020, 16:58
Hi Helena,

Thank you for your comment on this article. I have passed your message on to one of my colleagues within the Social and Cultural History department who may be able to discuss the matter further with you.

Kind regards,

Nia
(Digital team)
Helena Hoarse
9 February 2020, 19:15
There will be no breakdown if linguistical diversity disappears, rather a minimisation of just that as languages do indeed divide people as seen in Cameroon and Canada.

Why is there this big debate about conserving languages that no one wants to learn instead of just writing down the relevant information? Sadly I have an hard time not seeing how this is just the lack of the languages’ relevance.
23 January 2019, 22:21
Well said
chlo
23 May 2017, 23:29
wow.