01 Track 1

CD 4

unit 10

Language and Life

Chapter 1

The Exodus of Languages

Page 175

The Exodus of Languages

I had halted the thought my frozen cheeks when a sound and a sudden movement among the dogs made me start…

I had often imagined the first meeting with the Eskimos of the American Continent, and wondered what it would be like…

Three or four miles ahead a line of black objects stood out against the ice of the fjord…

One man detached himself from the party and came running across the ice…

These were the men I had come so far to seek from Denmark and from my familiar haunts in Greenland…

I had yelled at the dogs and the language of the Greenland Eskimo. And, from the expression of the stranger’s face, in a flash I realized that he had understood what I said…

I was so delighted to find that the difference in language was so slight that we had not the least difficulty in understanding one another.

Across Arctic America by Knud Rasmussen, 1927

Knutd Rasmussen wrote about his 32,000-kilometer dog-sled journey from Greenland to Siberia with a focus on his meetings with Eskimo (now known as Inuit) people.

They understood is Greenland dialect of Inuktitut since the dialects have a common core: They share a common origin, or the same mother language.

With migrating people, history shows a divergence of language which contrast with a converging trend that is endangering global linguistic diversity today.

Languages worldwide are converging to a smaller number as languages like English swallow regional ones.

The three largest languages of first-language speakers are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and English. The value of dominant languages can be seen in its widespread use for business, politics, science, and popular culture.

However, these dominant languages are squeezing out valuable local tongues. Linguists estimate that of the approximately 6,500 languages worldwide, about one-third are endangered or on the brink of extinction.

According to some linguists, the estimated global rate of extinction is one language lost every few weeks. If this sounds like the world is losing a species, in a way, it is.

When a language is lost, meaning no living person can teach another, a world perspective is lost. Some foreign language expressions simply cannot be translated.

Colloquial phrases usually reflect a unique aspect of a culture. For example, aboriginal languages in Canada and Australia have words that reflect the way of life that is connected closely to the environment.

Words can encompass whole situations of time and landscape that different from an English speaker’s experience.

The Inuit can describe “snow” in many specific ways. In Algonquian languages, the grammatical first person is “you”, so the listener comes first.

These views are essential to learn more about the human and the natural world. Botanists have discovered new species of plants after examining the meaning of Aboriginal names of flora that seemed identical.

Archaeologists are using languages to track migrations of historical cultures. University of Waterloo Professor Robert Park knows that the ancestral origins of existing Inuit communities can be partly explained by the similarity of the Inuktitut spoken by the Thule culture and present-day Inuit.

The ancient Thule migrated east from Alaska to Labrador and Greenland by evidence of the mutually intelligible, living dialects of today.

Languages are much like living creatures that become endangered when numbers dwindle without regeneration. Local natural disasters, war, and famine are some of the reasons languages slip through the cracks of history.

Some languages may not have been passed on to children because of forced cultural suppression. Linguistic communities can show resilience when a sense of pride is restored to them such that elders are heard and youth can continue to speak.

Various groups are taking action to preserve endangered languages. UNESCO has made its Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger available on-line.

The editor of the atlas states that it is still more common in the world to be multilingual; and, although multilingualism is declining, there are favorable conditions that support the continued use of minority languages.

Communities need encouragement to hear, read and speak their language in multiple places such as schools and media.

Preservation of languages with only a few living speakers may first require very targeted methods.

Linguists can engage with the community to develop a catalog of the language components, such as sounds, vocabulary, grammar, and traditions. The Internet has provided a means to share archived recordings and documentation.

If language resides in a culture, then it may also be important to find ways to teach children and their parents as a community.

The Maori language of New Zealand has seen resurgence in the proportion of speakers since the 1960s and ’70s when there was virtually no parent to child transmission.

This is a result of “language nests” set up by the community were elder speak Maori to children and parents in a kindergarten setting. This model of preservation has been used elsewhere, such as Hawaii.

There is growing recognition that preserving endangered languages is vital; a loss in global languages means a loss of the diverse thought and traditions. Those languages hold.