Why Do People Preserve Local Languages? Ch. 5 Key Issue 4 Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?

Preserving Language Diversity Languages disappear as speakers adopt other languages or the speakers die out. Need to write languages down (have a literary tradition)! Extinct languages Political dominance or cultural preferences cause one group to use another language over a local one

Fifty to ninety percent of the world's languages are predicted to disappear in the next century, many with little or no significant documentation

Reviving Extinct Languages Hebrew Official language of Israel along with Arabic Used in Jewish services Provided cultural unity between migrants and refugees from other countries/cultures who spoke different languages New words had to be invented- telephone, car.

Children are taught simultaneously in Arabic and Hebrew in Jerusalem. FIGURE 5-21

Preserving Endangered Languages Survival based on political and economic strength Celtic (an Indo-Euro Branch) Original language of Br. Isles fled west when Germanic tribes invaded Found today: Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Brittany Peninsula (France)

Multilingual States With 200 countries and about 7000 languages, countries must deal with multilingualism, which can pose cultural and political challenges Belgium South Walloons (French) vs. North Flemings (Flemish) Difficulty sharing national power- want separate countries Regional variation (North vs. South) but bilingual Brussels (capital) Switzerland Decentralized gov’t, local gov’t power = national toleration; different official languages spoken locally Differs from situation in Belgium

FIGURE 5-23a

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Multilingual States US Canada India Current issue over Spanish use French vs English in Quebec India Official languages correspond with the different States within India

Monolingual States Some states exists where almost everyone speaks the same language Japan Iceland Denmark Portugal Uruguay Poland Lesotho Due to migration and diffusion, no country is truly monolingual

Official Languages In a country with linguistic fragmentation, an official language(s) is adopted to tie the people together Hopes to promote communication and interaction among peoples who speak different languages Problems: Nigeria Rejection of using the language Reflection of the country’s history- former colonies adopting former colonizer’s language as official

Isolated Languages Lack of interaction helps preserve language Basque: Pre P.I.E. speakers, isolated in Pyrenees Mtns. Icelandic: least changed; Norwegian migrants isolated- no contact with local speakers or back home. Nothing in common with other Germanic languages- they “developed” over time

English as a Global language? If a global language means: Everyday use for all people in world: NO! Growth rates are lowest in English speaking countries Many people resist switching to English Common language for trade and commerce around the world(lingua franca): YES! Current trend is to use English for science, technology, travel, business, education

Dominance of English English is the language for int’l communication = Lingua Franca facilitates trade among speakers of different languages explains why govt’s choose English as official language even when little of the population speaks it Mandatory learning of English in other countries

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Diffusion of English Languages used to diffuse relocationally through force and conquest (Roman and Br. Empires) Now = expansion diffusion New words being hierarchically diffused from “common” people upward (Ebonics: gumbo, jazz) Fusing with other languages Franglais, Spanglish, Denglish English words/phrases are favored Hablo un mix de dos languages.

How do languages still diffuse today? Lingua Franca- a language that two people speaking different languages can communicate with (Global example: English, Regional example: Swahili) Used for trade and commerce Pidgin Language- used for easier understanding, two languages are simplified and combined into a new language. The first ever lingua franca was a pidgin language: Frankish- a mixture of Arabic, Italian, Greek and Spanish. Became the common language of Mediterranean trade

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