Disappearing Languages(by Rosemarie Ostler)

wei

By Rosemarie OSTLER

    Many linguists predict that at least half of the world’s 6000 or so languages will be dead or dying by the year 2050.Languages are becoming extinct at twice the rate of endangered mammals and four times the rate of endangered birds. If this trend continues, the world of the future could be dominated by a dozen or fewer languages.

The definition of a healthy language is one that acquires new speakers. No matter how many adults use the language, if it isn’t passed to the next generation, its fate is already sealed. Although a language may continue to exist for a long time as a second or official language, it is moribund as soon as children stop learning it. For example, out of 20 native Alaskan languages, only two are still being learned by children.

    Linguists scramble to document as many dying languages as possible, but a lack of resources forces them to focus on the most severe cases.  Inevitably, some languages will disappear before they can be written down. And once an unwritten language is gone, it's gone for good.

Fewer Languages, Fewer Thoughts

    Although language extinction is sad for the people involved, why should the rest of us care? What effect will other people’s language loss have on the future of people who speak English, for example? Replacing a minor language with a more widespread one may even seem like a good thing, allowing people to communicate with each other more easily. But language diversity is as important in its way as biological diversity.

As more species appear on the threatened or endangered lists, we are beginning to realize the importance of biological diversity to the world’s health. Every plant and animal contributes in some way, even if its usefulness isn’t always immediately obvious.

The Pacific yew, once considered a "trash tree" and routinely discarded during logging operations, gained new importance in 1992 when the drug taxol was approved to treat cancers.  Taxol is extracted from the bark of the Pacific yew.  Unfortunately, this tree had nearly disappeared before scientists were aware of it curative properties.

    The world is always changing.  Tomorrow's information needs may not be those of today. Changing weather patterns, for example, may result in a much warmer or much colder planet in the future. The survival skills of a small group of people living near the equator or the Arctic Circle may become crucial for the rest of humanity. If those people have already lost their language and their traditional knowledge, our survival may depend on our ability to reinvent what they once knew. As Michael Krauss expresses it, the web of language is a "microcosm of highly specialized information. Every language has its own take on the world. One language is not simply a different set of words for the same things”. Just as we depend on biological complexity for our physical survival, we depend on linguistic complexity for our cultural survival. “Maybe we could still subsist,” says Krauss, "but our humanity would be lost."

Languages In Crisis

    Some language loss, like species loss, is natural and predictable. No language exists forever. Just as plants and animals have appeared and disappeared over the millennia, languages have evolved, grown and spread, and eventually dwindled and died. Sometimes they’re replaced by their "descendant" languages, as Italian gradually replaced Latin. Other times they’re forced out, as the ancient Etruscan language was when Latin speakers overran the Italian peninsula. Language extinction is accelerating today for some of the same reasons as species extinction. These include population pressures and the spread of industrialization. For example, the global economy often forces small, undeveloped communities to choose between their traditional language and participation in the larger world. East Africans need to speak Swahili for success; central Europeans need to speak Russian; and lately, the whole world seems to need to speak English. Sometimes these languages coexist with the local language. More often, they eventually replace it as older speakers die and younger ones adopt the more useful tongue.

Although recent language policies in all three places attempt to reverse this trend, for many languages it is simply too late.  Besides, even now, speakers of the dominant language take occasional backward steps. The government of Australia’s Northern Territory recently decided to discontinue bilingual education programs, while the Internet provider America Online has banned the use of Irish on its "Peace in Ireland" chat group. Proponents of English as the language of the United States ended bilingual education in California recently with the passage of Proposition 227.

    Repressive language policies are common in many parts of the world. East African countries actively encourage citizens to abandon tribal languages in favor of Swahili or another "unifying" common language as a way of promoting loyalty to new governments. Minority languages are routinely repressed as first step toward repressing the minorities themselves. Although interest in language preservation is on the rise in some quarters, many people have an equally strong interest in stamping out minority tongues.

Rescuing Endangered Languages

    In the past, language revitalization was mostly left to the speakers of the language. It was a haphazard process, dependent on individual initiative and whatever funding could be put together.  Recently, linguists and other interested people have started a number of umbrella organizations for a more comprehensive approach to language rescue.

Preservation is, of course, a limited way of saving a language. Linguists or others studying native languages are often forced to take a triage approach, dealing with the most critical problems first. If a language has only two speakers and they are both over 50,the primary goal is to record the language before is disappears. But turning languages around before they reach the stage of near extinction is preferable, if time, money, and speakers are available.

Language-rescue organizations work to publicize the plight of threatened languages before their decline is irreversible. They also monitor public policies toward minority languages. The United Nations has declared language maintenance a human right, and UNESCO is compiling a "Red Book" of endangered languages. The Foundation for Endangered Languages has also become involved in politics, writing letters to several governments and protesting their language policies.

Final Words

    We face two alternative scenarios for the future. In one, the world becomes increasingly homogenized as minority cultures and their languages are swept away in the on-coming tide of standardization. The accumulated knowledge of millennia disappears, leaving the world a poorer place. In the other scenario, minorities keep their cultural integrity, and minor languages continue to exist alongside larger ones. Which scenario comes to pass depends to a large extent on our actions now.

Cautions hopefulness is the keynote among people working with endangered languages.  Ostler points out that exact predictions for language loss are impossible. Although many languages have fewer than 10,000 speakers, they may not necessarily be headed for extinction. If a community has historically had a small number of speakers, its linguistic base could still be stable.” We really do not know how many languages there will be in the next generation, or the one after that,” says Ostler.  "Clearly, though, there will be fewer than there are today."

Hinton also offers modest encouragement about the future.  "It’s true,” she says, “that most endangered languages will stay alive only as second or official languages. Some languages are gaining ground, though, and I think soon we will see new generations of real native speakers being born."

    Political and cultural support for linguistic diversity may yet stem the flood of dying languages. Of course, as Ostler remarks, “the most any of us can do is to keep the torch burning for the next generation; no generation is responsible for the rest of the future.” We can try to make sure, though, that we leave the next generation as many languages as the last generation left us.

wei 于 01/20/2003 12:42  说 :
By Rosemarie OSTLER

    Many linguists predict that at least half of the world’s 6000 or so languages will be dead or dying by the year 2050.Languages are becoming extinct at twice the rate of  ...

消失的Languages(by Rosemarie Ostler)

由Rosemarie OSTLER

    許多語言學家預言, 至少世界的6000 的一半語言餘將是死的或死在年以前2050.Languages 變得絕種以兩次危險的哺乳動物和四倍的率危險的鳥的率。如果這個趨向繼續, 未來的世界能由一種十二種或少量語言控制。

一種健康語言的定義是一個獲取新報告人。無論許多成人使用語言, 如果它不通過對下一代, 它的命運已經被密封。雖然語言也許繼續長期存在作為第二種或官方語言, 它是即將結束的當孩子停止學會它。例如, 喪失20 種當地阿拉斯加的語言, 只二由孩子仍然學會。

    語言學家儘可能擾亂提供許多種垂危的語言, 但缺乏資源迫使他們集中於最嚴厲的案件。  不可避免地, 一些語言將消失在他們可能寫下之前。並且一旦一種沒記錄的語言去, 它永遠。

少量語言, 少量想法

    雖然語言絕種是哀傷的為介入的人民, 為什麼我們其餘的人應該關心? 人民的語言損失將有什麼作用在講英語的未來人, 例如嗎? 替換較小語言用一更加分佈廣一個也許甚而似乎像一件好事, 允許人更加容易地通信互相。但語言變化是一樣重要用它的方式像生物變化。

當更多種類出現在被威脅的或危險的名單, 我們開始意識到生物變化的重要性對世界的健康。每個植物和動物貢獻在某個方面, 既使它的有用性總不是立刻顯然的。

和平的赤柏松, 一旦認為"垃圾樹" 和定期地擯除在採伐的操作, 1992 年被獲取的新重要性期間當藥物taxol 被批准對待癌症。  Taxol 從和平的赤柏松的吠聲被提取。  不幸地, 這棵樹幾乎消失了在科學家意識到它治病的物產之前。

    世界總改變。  明天資訊需求不能是那些今天。改變的氣候類型, 例如, 也許在將來導致一個更加溫暖或更冷的行星。一群小人的生存技能居住在赤道或北極圈附近也許變得關鍵為剩餘人類。如果人已經丟失他們的語言和他們的傳統知識, 我們的生存也許取決於我們的能力重創什麼他們曾經知道。如同邁克爾・Krauss 表達它, 語言網是高度專業資訊"微觀世界。每種語言有它自己的作為在世界。一種語言簡單地不是另外套詞為同樣事"。正我們取決於生物複雜為我們的物理生存, 我們取決於語言複雜為我們的文化生存。"可能我們能仍然維持生活," 我們的人類說Krauss, "僅會丟失。"

語言在危機

    一些語言損失, 像種類損失, 是自然和可預測的。語言永遠不存在。正植物和動物出現和消失了在千年期間, 語言演變了, 增長和傳播, 和最終減少了和死了。有時they're 由他們的"後裔" 語言替換, 作為義大利人逐漸被替換的拉丁語。其它次他們被驅逐, 因為古老Etruscan 語言是拉丁報告人侵佔了義大利半島。語言絕種今天加速為一些原因和種類絕種一樣。這些包括人口壓力和工業化傳播。例如, 全球性經濟經常強迫小, 未開展的社區選擇在他們的傳統語言之間和參與更大的世界。東部非洲人需要講斯瓦希裡語為成功; 中央歐洲需要講俄語; 並且最近, 全世界似乎需要講英語。有時這些語言共存以地方語言。經常, 他們最終替換它當更老的報告人死並且更加年輕那些採取更加有用的舌頭。

雖然最近語言政策在所有三個地方試圖扭轉這個趨向, 為了許多語言是簡單地太晚。  其外, 甚而現在, 統治語言的報告人採取偶爾的回代過程。澳洲的北方領土的政府最近決定中斷雙語教育節目, 當網際網路提供者美國在線取締了對愛爾蘭語的用途在它的"和平在愛爾蘭" 閒談小組。英語的擁護者如同美國的語言最近結束了雙語教育在加利福尼亞以段落提議227 。

    壓抑語言政策是共同在許多世界的地區。東部非洲國家活躍地鼓勵公民摒棄部族語言傾向於斯瓦希裡語或另"成一體" 共同語言作為促進忠誠方式對新政府。少數語言定期地被抑制作為第一步往抑制少數。雖然興趣在語言保存上是在上升在一些處所, 許多人有相等地強烈興趣在蓋印在少數舌頭之外。

搶救危險的語言

    從前, 語言復活主要留下了給語言的報告人。這是一個隨便過程, 依賴於個人的積極性並且任何資助能被彙集。  最近, 語言學家和其它感興趣的人民開始了一定數量的庇護組織為一種更加全面的方法對語言搶救。

保存是, 當然, 保存語言一個有限的方式。語言學家或其他人學習母語經常被迫使採用triage 方法, 首先應付最重要的問題。如果語言有只二位報告人並且他們是兩個50, 主要目標是記錄語言在是消失之前。但轉動語言在他們到達之前近的絕種階段是更好的, 如果時間、金錢, 和報告人是可利用的。

語言搶救組織工作公開被威脅的語言境況在他們的decline 是不可逆的之前。他們並且監測國家政策往少數語言。聯合國宣稱語言維護人權, 並且科教文組織編寫"紅色書" 危險的語言。基礎為危險的語言並且變得介入政治, 寫信給幾個政府和抗議他們的語言政策。

最後的詞

    我們面對二個供選擇的情節為將來。在一個, 世界成為越來越均勻當少數文化和他們的語言被清掃在標準化近來浪潮。千年積累知識消失, 離開世界一個更加粗劣的地方。在另一情節, 少數保留他們的文化正直, 並且較小語言繼續存在沿著更大那些。哪個情節來通過取決於到大規模範圍我們的行動現在。

小心充滿希望的人是基調在人之中服務以危險的語言。  Ostler 指出, 確切的預言為語言損失是不可能的。雖然許多語言有較少比10,000 位報告人, 他們也許不一定朝向為絕種。如果社區歷史上有很小數量的報告人, 它的語言基地能仍然是穩定的。" 我們真正地不知道多少種語言那裡將是在下一代, 或那個在那以後, "認為Ostler 。  "清楚地, 雖然, 有將是較少比那裡今天是。"

Hinton 並且提供普通的鼓勵關於未來。  "它是真實的," 她說, "多數危險的語言將停留活只作為其次或官方語言。一些語言發展, 雖然, 和我認為我們很快將看真正的說母語的人的新一代被負擔。"

    政治和文化支持對於語言變化可以阻止群垂危的語言。當然, 因為Ostler 陳述, "多數任何我們能做將繼續火炬燃燒為下一代; 世代不負責對未來的剩餘。" 我們能設法確定, 雖然, 我們留下下一代許多種語言作為最後世代左我們。

Zavylon

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Amidou

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